Malcolm Turnbull warns Brits about letting Huawei build 5G network

London: Malcolm Turnbull has urged Britain not to allow Huawei to build its 5G network, saying Australia banned the Chinese telecommunications giant because of its own security advice, not after pressure from the United States.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.Credit:AAP

The former prime minister's comments constitute the strongest warning delivered by an Australian regarding Huawei, and comes ahead of the British government's review and Cabinet decision on the matter.

Addressing an audience that included many prominent British MPs at the Henry Jackson Society, a hawkish London think tank, Turnbull said last month's hack of Australian political parties underlined the need to be agile in responding to the growing cyber threat.

"It's why in one of the final decisions made while I was prime minister, as a decision of the government of course, the Cabinet, was to ban telecommunications companies which could not meet our security requirements, and that included Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to our new 5G telecom networks on national security grounds," he said.

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"We were the first nation formally to do so, and we decided not because another country told us to do so, let alone for protectionist reasons, but to defend our own sovereignty and to hedge against changing times."

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"It's important to remember that the threat is a combination of capability and intent. Capability can take years or decades to develop ... but intent can change in a heartbeat."

Turnbull said he had discussed the issue with US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May on many occasions.

He said it was imperative Britons understood that the security risks involved with 5G would be greater than previous data networks because of the technology involved.

"5G is different. Not only will it deliver much greater bandwidth – megabits per second but also much lower latency – it will also be the platform on which billions of devices, large and small will run from sensors in your home, industry and everywhere to automated vehicles," he said.

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"And the old distinction between the core and the radio access network or the edge will no longer be applicable."

He said it "beggars belief" that just four companies, two of them Chinese and two European, were capable of building 5G.

"With the benefit of hindsight it beggars belief that the countries which pioneered wireless technology – the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and with wifi, Australia - have got to the point where none of them are able to present to one of their own telcos a national or indeed a Five Eyes champion in 5G.

"Was radio leadership lost as the British Empire was supposedly won, in an absence of mind?"

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The British government is expecting to receive its review into the matter to be delivered some time between late March and June.

However, Turnbull said GCHQ's "strong views" were "consonant" with Australia's agencies and "did not, to say the least, come as a surprise".

He said regardless of the British government's decision, it was important for the two nations to treat cyber as a "matter of the highest bilateral importance" and ensure citizens in both countries "could have the confidence that their governments and their intelligence communities are working to keep them safe, not only offline but also online."